A STAMP featuring a grisly portrait of Adolph Hitler has been discovered in Loughborough.

The bizarre print was up for sale in the classified section of last week’s Echo.

Its owner, town stamp collector Colin Hind, 66, told the Echo: “I’ve had it since the 1970s.”

“I’ve been interested in stamps since a child and I’ve had this one for at least 30 years.

According to Colin, it could be a copy of a forgery from World War Two when a psychological warfare campaign was waged by the United States’ Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

Items like stamps were faked, then sent to Germany to make a mockery of its leaders by the OSS – the counterpart of the British Secret Intelligence Service.

Colin added: “The original forgery portrayed Hitler with his head facing the other way.

“The words on the bottom of the stamp were changed from ‘Deutches Reich’ to ‘Futsches Reich’, which translates to something like broken empire.

“The original stamp would have shown Hitler’s face perfectly, but this one is interesting because Hitler’s head is facing left and is represented by his skull like the original forgery.”

The (OSS) and Morale Operation – a section in Rome during the war – controlled Operation Cornflakes that Colin says was designed to drop German mail sacks containing subversive material in carefully addressed envelopes inside the Reich.

“The same people were also preparing propaganda for use in Operation Sauerkraut,” said Colin. “It was a plan to use captured German prisoners of war to distribute Allied propaganda behind enemy lines.”

Colin added: “I’ve enjoyed the stamp, but now it’s time to sell it on.”